Cook Islands

The Ministry of Marine Resources secretary was suspended in May this year on full pay.

It's understood the investigation was the result of a complaint laid against him in relation to last year's meeting of the Western and Pacific Fisheries Commission in the Philippines.

The Cook Islands Public Service Commissioner Russell Thomas said delays in completing the investigation were due to sourcing information from overseas, competing priorities and staffing issues.

Preliminary results are expected to be all in by 10 o'clock tonight local time.

When Prime Minister Henry Puna announced the June 14 date for the general elections less than two months ago, there was a general feeling of relief that there would be only a short lead-up time to polling day.

Long campaign periods have been known to place the small communities in the Cook Islands under considerable pressure as party politics plays a major role in the lives of many.

The meeting ran until the early hours of Friday morning despite being scheduled to finish on Thursday afternoon,

Nations were forced to make concessions to reach a deal.

Parties to the Nauru Agreement chief executive Ludwig Kumoru said the Cook Islands was disappointed with a lack of allocated fishing days in the high seas.

He said next year the commission would focus on enforcing the high seas but the negotiation of a new Tropical Tuna agreement had a successful outcome.

Last night's win was the fifth consecutive win for the team, who have made a return to international netball after a two-year hiatus.

The Cook Islands will now play Swaziland in tonight's final, who they beat 54-44 earlier in the week.

Photo: Netball Singapore Cook Islands beating Swaziland who they will now play in Final. 

It was estimated repairs would cost about $US170,000 and MP Tama Tuavera said the government should assist the Cook Islands Voyaging Society to pay for it.

He said Te Marumaruatua, the double hulled canoe which has been traditionally navigated thousands of nautical miles around the Pacific, has served the country honourably and brought pride to the Cook Islands.

He said the canoe was a national treasure that belongs to the people of the Cooks which the government has a duty to help save.

The leak, dubbed the Paradise Papers, contains more than 13.4 million documents mostly from the offshore law firm Appleby.

The papers also contained details from the corporate registries of the Cook Islands, Marshall Islands, Samoa and Vanuatu as well as 15 other registries, mostly in the Caribbean.

The papers covered the period from 1950 to 2016.

The International Consortium of Investigative Journalists is investigating the files along with a network of journalists around the world.

Mrs Iro began her career in health as a nurse before going to become the Cook Islands senior health official and the first woman to hold the post.

In making the appointment, the WHO Director-General, Dr Tedros Adhanom Ghebreyesus said nurses are central to achieving universal health coverage and the Sustainable Development Goals.

He said Ms Iro will keep that perspective front and centre at the WHO.

The appointment fulfils a commitment Dr Ghebreyesus made when he became director-general to appoint a nurse to his senior team.

The financing agreement was formalised during the Oceans Conference in Malta this week.

Under the agreement, which is financed through the 11th European Development Fund, the EU will provide $US1.65 million dollars to the Cook Islands' budget to help with the implementation of the National Sustainable Development Plan and the Sanitation Policy over the next four years.

Photo: RNZ/Daniela Maoate-Cox The Cook Islands Prime Minister Henry Puna 

But the minister of finance Mark Brown said it was not fully viable given current challenges and a lack of resources.

Mr Brown said while the change was a major milestone it involved considerable challenges and meant the Cook Islands had to consider a new way of doing business.

He said there were still options to efficiently run the country without the support of the large grants which would cease once the islands are declared a developed nation.

The Solomon Islander moved to Australia in 2005 to study. He's able to live there openly as a gay person.

But not so in Solomon Islands where he keeps a low profile on short visits home to visit family.

"I feel sorry for my friends back in the Solomons who are gay. I know people who are verbally and physically abused for being gay on a daily basis.

"They even get threatened that they'll be arrested and have the law thrown upon them," he said.